CAD for Woodworkers: makes it easy to draw woodworking plans
What you'll learn
- Learn to draw fully dimensioned plans, quickly and easily
- Although the course is based on DraftSight, because of the similarities to AutoCAD and other professional CAD applications, you will learn to draw woodworking plans using any top level CAD program
Requirements
- No prior knowledge of CAD
- You will need a computer capable of running either DraftSight, or the FREE alternative nanoCAD, which should be downloaded and installed prior to taking the course. Additionally, a wheelmouse or equivalent is really useful to allow zooming and panning without accessing screen commands.
Description
Once you have learned the basics in CAD drawing, you will have a skill that will last you a lifetime.
Here's what a recent student on the course, Cady Dodds, a carpenter designer/maker who runs Perfect Space Carpentry, had to say in an email to me:
"The course has been great for me, first step towards electronic drawing.
I sat down this afternoon and drew up 2 elevations for a client, some wardrobes and storage. Although basic I think quite acceptable and took me about 2 hours or so, and after a bit of fettling I got them to print. So I am very pleased."
This was Cady's first ever CAD drawing. The 2 hours it took him, will soon become an hour. The time savings CAD offers you have to be experienced to be believed. What's more, you can send your finished drawing to anyone, anywhere in the world, as a PDF file which they can open to view and print. Its an unbeatable technology, using FREE software!
Here are some of the things the course teaches you to do:
- how to set up the CAD screen to draw more quickly and easily
- how to use a few basic tools to maximum effect, and build even complex drawings using simple techniques
- how to re-use existing drawings to create new ones, in a fraction of the time
- how to dimension your finished drawings in minutes using powerful CAD tools
- how to output your drawings as finished scale plans, either printed or as PDF files
Using a project based, step by step method I show you how to draw a complete set of elevations of an Apothecary's Chest.
A PDF version of the plans of the chest are provided to download for reference, and sequential versions of the relevant CAD files for you to work on as you progress through the course are also included. These files are prepared with a range of dimension scales to make it much easier to output your finished drawing, and can be re-used as templates in the future.
The course has 3 main sections
- Customising the workspace, where you learn how to streamline the CAD screen and tools to get the most out of them
- The project, where you learn through step by step video lectures, how to draw a complete set of woodworking plans
- Dimensioning, scales and output, where you learn how to add dimensions to the finished plans and output the drawing to print or as a PDF file
Who this course is for:
- The course is designed primarily to teach CAD to anyone involved in woodworking and similar craft and design disciplines.
Course content
2 lectures • 4minIntroduction
- 02:40Introduction
- 01:36DraftSight: Great value CAD software
4 lectures • 23minClearing the decks
3 lectures • 6minCAD essentials and concepts
7 lectures • 47minDrawing the front elevation
3 lectures • 17minConstructing the side elevation
2 lectures • 15minLayers and dimensioning
4 lectures • 23minDrawing the front section
2 lectures • 9minDrawing the side section
2 lectures • 29minScales and plotting to PDF
3 lectures • 16minThe next step
Instructor
![Simon Rodway](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 64 64"%3E%3C/svg%3E){kind=avatar}
- 4.3 Instructor Rating
- 541 Reviews
- 3,785 Students
- 3 Courses
Working as an illustrator and designer in architecture and publishing for more than 30 years has taught me a lot about different types of drawing software.
So how do you choose which programs to use?
I've done that for you in my courses.
Would you like to learn how to draw accurate woodworking plans quickly and easily using a great value professional CAD program? Well, take my CAD for Woodworkers course using DraftSight, a great professional level CAD program similar in commands and structure to AutoCAD.
Would you like to be able to design and draw your projects in 3D? I'm running a course now on Udemy, SketchUp for Woodworkers, for anyone (not just woodworkers) who wants to learn how to use SketchUp to draw smaller projects (ie not a house!)
See my Udemy courses ,SketchUp for Woodworkers and its companion course, CAD for Woodworkers.
Brief CV: I have worked on a wide range of magazine titles in the UK, US and Europe and currently illustrate 2 UK based craft titles, Furniture and Cabinetmaking and Woodworking Crafts, providing plans and 3D drawings as well as articles for both. I have illustrated more than 50 books on a wide variety of craft subjects, and have written extensively in craft magazines on the use of computer drawing techniques in furniture making and joinery.
I have a degree in Architecture, and run LineMine, a website that focuses on design drawing techniques and software.